On Monday, Hieronymus confirmed only 10 absentee ballots were received following the election, and the final results have widen the gap between Beaber and Shipp by 20 votes.

Final vote totals show Beaber with 1,321 votes and Shipp with 1,301 votes.

Breaking it down, that means Beaber received four votes through absentee ballots, and Shipp received two votes.

Hieronymus said two ballots were nonpartisan party, meaning the last two ballots had votes for either fellow sheriff Republican candidates Alex Arauza, who received 591 votes, and Bill Rosenow, who received 535 votes.

Hieronymus doesn’t expect any more ballots to come through the mail. Absentee ballots had to be postmarked no later than March 17. She confirmed most of the ballots that came through the mail did so in the days immediately following the election.

Looking at the rather low number of received absentee ballots, Hieronymus said she wasn’t surprised to see only 10 out of 35 ballots came through. Usually her office sees an average of six to 12 absentee ballots after elections.

Seeing how close the sheriff’s race turned out, she stressed how much a vote matters, especially in local elections. While there always seems to be a lot of interest in election races at the national level, voters can often better see how impactful their vote is in the local races, she said.

Beaber will face sheriff Democrat candidate Jim Reed, who ran unopposed in the primary election and received 978 votes.

In other election news:

Absentee ballots also had the opportunity to change the unofficial results for the Arlington referendum, which proposed a tax increase for village residents. On election night, unofficial results showed 25 “yes” votes and 13 “no” votes. Hieronymus reported no change in those results with the absentee ballots.